EK / servicegroup
| EK / servicegroup eG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | registered cooperative (eG) |
| founding | May 20, 1925 |
| Seat | Bielefeld , Germany |
| management |
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| Number of employees | approx. 800 (2018) |
| sales | approx. EUR 2.4 billion (2018) |
| Branch | Wholesale |
| Website | www.ek-servicegroup.de |
The EK / servicegroup eG , short EK is one of the largest trade cooperations in Europe.
It operates in the business areas EK Home (household goods, gift items, glass, porcelain, ceramics, stationery, leather goods, garden, balcony and terrace furniture as well as household appliances, kitchens, electrical installation, light and toys and leisure goods, books, baby items), EK fashion (Fashion, clothing, home and house textiles), EK Wohnen (sleeping and seating furniture, home textiles), EK Heimwerken (hardware store supplies), EK Sport (clothing and sports equipment) and EK books (books, e-books).
history
In 1925, three hardware dealers founded the Westfalen Lippe purchasing association in order to receive volume discounts when purchasing goods. The first chairman Heinrich Tönnies acted from his office in Lage . 1928 - meanwhile 30 dealers were connected - a company location was sought. Due to the traffic situation, Bielefeld was given a new headquarters. In addition, the purchasing association Westfalen-Lippe eGmbH was entered in the commercial register. In 1931 the name was shortened to EWELI Großeinkaufsverband eGmbH .
Warehousing began in 1936 and the range was expanded to include household goods, household electrical appliances, toys, gifts, etc. For this reason, among other things, the company headquarters changed several times within Bielefeld until 1965.
In 1968 EWELI and the ceramic purchasing cooperative eGmbH (Bremen) merged to form EWELI-KERAMIK . In 1972 this merged with the purchasing associations Rheinwest eGmbH (Essen) and ROTE ERDE eGmbH (Dortmund) to form EK Großeinkauf eGmbH
In 1994 a cooperation between EK Großeinkauf and E / D / E began , in which E / D / E sold its product groups gifts and glass, porcelain, ceramics to EK and E / D / E customers could purchase these goods from there. This was intensified in 1997 when EK sold most of its DIY range to the E / D / E warehouse. These activities culminated in the founding of ZEUS on January 1st, 1998 , in which both partners contributed their DIY areas and each had a 50 percent stake. ZEUS is administered at the headquarters of E / D / E in Wuppertal . Since 37 members of the EK did not want to support this step, they jointly founded a new association under the name EMV Purchasing and Marketing Association in Detmold . To this day, this has led to the fact that the Baufuchs DIY stores initiated by EK can be assigned partly to Zeus and partly to EMV. The first managing director of EMV was Peter Lang, who was previously managing director of the EK subsidiary DIY Zentraleinkauf for 13 years .
In the mid-1990s, the approach was taken to join forces with the larger NB Großeinkauf eG, Essen (NB stands for Nürnberger Bund), as it ran into difficulties, among other things, due to a newly built automated warehouse that was unsuitable for its range. In 1998 he joined the even larger Kaufring . In January 2002 the wholesale stores of Kaufring were to be merged with those of EK Großeinkauf. However, this was prevented by the banks of the Kaufring, which had now also got into trouble.
In August 2005 the name was changed to EK / servicegroup. On the one hand, it should do justice to the internationalization of the company, which is active in almost all the surrounding countries (“bulk purchase” is not understandable there and is sometimes repulsive). On the other hand, it should be emphasized that EK offers more than just getting cheaper prices by buying together. With the name change, the entire corporate design was changed, which had been characterized by the color blue since 1972.
Meaning of the name
Officially, EK for E inkaufs k ooperation. However, it is often assumed that the predecessor E WELI- K is ERAMIK. This is also supported by the fact that the first EK Großeinkauf logo corresponds to the Eweli-Keramik logo.
Structure, key figures
The cooperation includes over 4,000 (2018) independent , medium-sized trading companies (specialty stores, specialist markets as well as department stores and department stores) in 17 countries, some with their own subsidiaries such as EK France, EK Austria or Euretco, Netherlands.
The “EK / servicegroup” generates external sales of around 5 billion euros, and central sales of around 2.4 billion euros annually (as of 2018). The distribution volume in 2018 was 23 million euros, the equity ratio was 20 percent of the balance sheet total.
The main ranges include housewares, gift items, white goods , glass, porcelain, ceramics, toys, baby equipment, books, fashion, stationery as well as sports and furniture in the Netherlands.
The company, which is organized as a cooperative , is based in Bielefeld . The chairman of the board is Franz-Josef Hasebrink, the chairman of the supervisory board is Wilhelm Behrends. The company employs around 800 people, including around 500 in Germany.
Services
The services offered include central purchasing , marketing , logistics , information technology , central billing , management consulting , and training .
The services offered by the company under the umbrella of EK / servicegroup are subdivided into "Services for the business areas" (purchasing and service) and the "Central Functions" EK Commerce , EK Finance and basic functions (HR, balance sheets, controlling, IT, etc.) )
The company imports goods partly directly from the Far East , working in logistics closely with forwarding services together (along with direct deliveries from major suppliers since the beginning of 2005, the IDS Logistics -Partnerfirma Gebr. Mönkemöller , Bielefeld), own has private labels designed for. B. "St. Barth ”(textiles),“ my style ”(lifestyle products),“ my Edition ”(electronic items) and“ my choice ”(interior decoration), also acts as a system provider (with system and operating type concepts such as“ electroplus "," HappyBaby "," Ambiance & Styles "or" Culinarion ") and regularly organizes the in-house sample, order, trend and service fairs" EK LIVE "," EK HOME "," EK FUN "with industrial partners on 32,000 m² and "Fahion Order Days".
Internal award
The EK / servicegroup has been awarding the EK Passion Star as a trade award since 2011 . The award is given to specialist shops and department stores, the members and trading partners of EK / servicegroup.
Subsidiaries and holdings
- SPIEL & SPASS Spielwaren-Handelsgesellschaft mbH , Bielefeld, founded in 1991, now comprises more than 400 toy outlets in Germany, Austria (market leader there after the acquisition of "Interspiel"), Luxembourg and Switzerland.
- After Kaufring AG went bankrupt in March 2002, EK / servicegroup took over the management of its members.
- The Sütegro was founded in 1953 as a cooperative buying group for wholesalers in textiles and clothing range based in Nuremberg. From 1985 retailers could also become members there. In 2004 it merged with EK / servicegroup. Since then, Sütegro has been a subsidiary of EK / servicegroup and operates as an independent GmbH. At the time of the merger, Sütegro had 134 domestic and foreign members.
- Since 2006 cooperation with the ZEEV (Central Swiss Iron Merchant Purchasing Association)
- On January 1, 2007 EK enters into a cooperation with the leading Austrian textile trade cooperation "ModeRing MEM GmbH & Co. KG", Graz (69 trade partners, sales around 17 million euros).
- From 2007 through the acquisitions IGEKA eG ( I NTERESTS ge Community of K inderf a chgeschäfte) and the Ardek eG, Hofheim, rebuilt range a baby.
- On February 1, 2015, the ToyPartner VEDES / EK GmbH joint venture was founded for the toys sector , in which Vedes and EK hold equal shares.
- Buchwert GmbH, joint venture with ANWR, Mainhausen.
- EASY * Systems, Bielefeld, a consultancy for merchandise management and e-business
- WSG Wirtschafts- und Steuerberatungs-Gesellschaft mbH , Bielefeld
- KVV Konzis-Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-Gesellschaft mbH , Korschenbroich
- nmedia GmbH , Düsseldorf
EK International
- EK France SARL , Paris / France
- EK Vertriebsgesellschaft Austria GmbH , Leobersdorf near Vienna / Austria
- Euretco, Hoevelaken / Netherlands
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ EK / servicegroup: Numbers Data Facts ( Memento from March 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ EK / servicegroup gets the trade on course. (PDF 152 kB) (No longer available online.) EK / servicegroup, April 25, 2018, archived from the original on March 9, 2016 ; accessed on August 27, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Zeus: History of Zeus
- ↑ EMV: History of EMV ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ DIYonline issue 1/1998: Chronicle 1997 ( Memento from April 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Kaufring takes over the Nürnberger Bund completely
- ↑ Last web of Sütegro before the merger ( Memento of 15 June 2004 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ establishment of ToyPartner Vedes / EK GmbH from January 8, 2015
Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 31 ″ N , 8 ° 35 ′ 10 ″ E